Google Chrome Extension Punts Content Farms in Search

Google took another step to stomp out content farms Feb. 14 by launching a
small application for its Google Chrome Web browser that lets people block
Websites from their Web search results on Google.com.
When installed by a user, the Personal Blocklist Chrome extension will let users click
the "block url" button to block a site so they won't see results from
that domain again in their search results on Google.com.

Personal Blocklist users may also undo blocks and edit blocked sites by
clicking on the extension's icon in the top right of the Chrome window.

What clicking the block URL does is feed Google information about blocked
Websites. Google will study the "resulting feedback and explore using it
as a potential ranking signal for our search results," wrote Google Principal Engineer Matt Cutts.
What Cutts means is Google is asking for users to help weed out content
farms, which he defined as "sites with shallow or low-quality
content."
Content farms, including those such as Demand Media, have proved to be a
huge bugbear for pushing Websites chock full of ads that clutter up Google's
search results.
Tech-savvy users, from bloggers to pundits, have been complaining
about the rising spam quotient on Google, which was once hallowed for its
clean, efficient search service.
Cutts and his team began cracking down on content farms in late 2010, acknowledging that
content farms had become a problem.
Cutts has also of late found himself vigorously defending Google's search
quality, including during a Microsoft Bing-sponsored search event. At the
event, Cutts countered concerns about Google.com's search engine by accusing
Bing of copying Google search results.
Cutts then revealed Feb. 12 that Google had to crack down on J.C. Penny
after its SEO firm gamed Google to get top billing in dozens of popular product
searches.
To wit, we now have the Personal Blocklist extension, which is currently
available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and
Turkish.
Read more about how Personal Blocklist works on Search Engine Land.